Legal action is being taken to evict Travellers from a multi-million-pound development site, council bosses in Perth have confirmed.
About a dozen caravans set up camp at the city’s under-construction Food and Drink Park some six months ago.
Perth and Kinross Council initially served notice on the group, giving them 24 hours to leave, but the authority agreed to grant a reprieve and enter into further talks.
But as construction on the business park reaches a crucial stage, the local authority says the site now poses a health and safety hazard.
A local authority spokeswoman said: “The council continues to monitor and engage with the Gypsy/Traveller encampment at the Food and Drink Park in Perth.
“Unfortunately, the council have been unable to reach an agreement with the Gypsy/Travellers to vacate this unauthorised site. And now, due to construction activity significantly progressing at the site and an increased risk to health and safety, the council has taken the decision to take legal action to resolve the issue.”
Local councillor Chris Ahern has been keeping an eye on the situation.
“The site has been used by numbers of Travellers on a rolling basis, when families move on others move in,” he said.
“Therefore any notices given to them only apply to those that were there at the time.
“It has now come to a point where action needs to be taken to move them on, as progress is made on the Food and Drink Park with new units already nearly finished and others going to be built in the future.
“We need to use the park for the purpose it was built, and in order to do that the Travellers will have to move on.”
Mr Ahern said: “I have been aware that a local transport company wants to carry out work on their site and the presence of the Travellers would cause a health and safety issue.”
He said he had also received complaints from residents about aggressive dogs and litter.
“For the benefit of the businesses around the site and for the Travellers and their safety, they must leave the site,” he added.
Talk of fresh legal action comes as work on phase one of the specialist Food and Drink Park — the first of its kind in Scotland — nears completion.
Construction work began at the much-heralded park in January. The £1.8 million contract to build units on the site was awarded to Forfar-based Andrew Shepherd Construction.
The units are now in place and the council wants to clear the camp before they can be marketed effectively.
Earlier this summer, the camp was empty for a short time and three large concrete barriers were put in place to stop Travellers returning.
However, a digger was used to shift the roadblock and thus allow more vehicles back on to the site.
